


A Picture For Words

by anchortied



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Christmas, Coffee Shop, Holiday Fic Exchange, M/M, Pining, and harry draws stupid pictures on his coffee cup, in which louis falls for harry in like a month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 13:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8891791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anchortied/pseuds/anchortied
Summary: “It’s hard to forget such a ridiculous order. Anyway, weren’t you the one who told me you liked people like me? Because I just ordered a simple tea?”“I never said that was why I liked you.”“What-”“I’ll be right with you, sir!” Harry said loudly, cutting Louis off and rushing back over to the register where Louis’ new least favorite person stood, waiting to give Harry their order.Louis, who was standing at the ‘Pick Up’ counter, his tea clutched in his hands, tried to process what Harry had just said.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imalexakoenig](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imalexakoenig/gifts).



 

The only logical course of action after the snowball fight of the century is to get a hot drink.

Louis Tomlinson, a young man in his twenties with an affinity for mischief, orchestrated said snowball fight when he woke up on the first of December to a blanket of snow covering everything from the trees to the rooftops to the fabulous streets of Louis’ hometown . Such an exuberant amount of snow could only mean that a day of frosty wonderment was to commence. And such wonderment is only greatly increased by pelting snowballs at your best mates.

Of course after two nosebleeds and four sprained ankles, one of which Liam claims is Louis’ fault (Louis will not admit to such an accusation, because everything is fair in love and snowballs),  the group of young college students decide to trek down the hill toward the closest coffee shop in town, to get caffeine and reenact all of the best ways they were almost killed by a ball of frozen water.

When they stepped into the brightly lit coffee shop, all six of them dripping wet and shivering, Louis let out a whistle of approval. The shop was brightly lit with Christmas lights, strings and strings of them running along all of the walls and even part of the ceiling. They twinkled brightly and rhythmically with the christmas music that was playing in the background. Louis, who always appreciated a good christmas tune from Bublé, immediately felt at home.

As they lined up behind the counter to give their orders, Louis breathed in deeply, letting the smell of coffee grounds and warmth fill him up.

“What can I get for you, today?”

Apparently it was Louis’ turn to order, but when his eyes met with the barista’s, his cheeks warmed and he knew his face was now a nice shade of pink, of which had nothing to do with the cold outside.

“Um-” Louis trailed off, his insides fluttering. The barista smiled encouragingly, which only encouraged Louis’ stomach to do a somersault into his throat.

“J-just a small tea, please, no sugar,” Louis stammered, and prayed to whatever God might be out there that the cute barista assumed his inability to speak was due to the cold outside.

The barista smiled, with teeth, and Louis could barely muster up enough inner strength to return it.

“I like people like you,” the barista replied, scribbling on Louis’ cup.  Louis’ stomach rolled and rolled and rolled and just so he could stop calling him ‘the barista’ in his head, he glanced down at the name tag on his chest.

‘Harry’, it read.

“Well thank you.” Louis managed to reply, which made Harry smile again, and Louis commended himself. “I’m sure you’re incredibly likeable as well.”

Harry laughed. Louis, personally, felt victimized by such a dorky and adorable sound.

“I’d like to think so. My coffee order is a bit more complicated though.”

Louis, who had really never found the coffee orders of other people to be especially exciting, leaned forward slightly, suddenly wanting nothing more than to hear the ridiculous order of the ridiculously cute boy in front of him. Before he could speak however, Harry said, “What’s your name? To put on the cup?”

“Louis.” Louis immediately replied, and he prayed his voice sounded less squeaky to Harry than it did in his head. Quickly, hoping to cover up the fact that he was an actual human disaster, he took out his wallet. “How much?”

Harry waved him away, smiling. “First time drink is on the house.”

“What? Are you sure?” Louis asked, hesitating, his wallet still open.

“Yes, sir.” Harry replied, smiling brightly, and Louis thought that if he could make Christmas lights as bright as Harry’s smile, he would make a fortune.

“Thank you,” Louis said, but quickly took a random bill out of his wallet and stuffed it into the tip jar, hoping he wasn’t blushing too hard.

“And, thank you.” Harry replied, and Louis wondered if this kid ever stopped smiling, but then, he wasn’t complaining.

If it weren’t for the line forming behind him, Louis might have stayed longer to talk, despite his mouth and vocal chords suddenly deciding to revolt against him. Quickly, Louis moved off to the side to wait with the remainder of his friends who still hadn’t received their drinks.

“Have a nice chat with the barista?” Liam said to Louis, a smirk playing at his lips.

Louis, who had retained most of the feeling in his body, smiled sweetly. “Have a nice chat with a snowball today? Because if not I can certainly arrange one.”

Liam rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. “Maybe you should invite your new friend to get pelted with snowballs, you might be better at it than you are at forming coherent sentences.”

Louis opened his mouth to retaliate, when a loud voice rang out, “Tea, strong, three sugars, Liam!”

Liam surged forward, smiling brightly at the blond barista, who smiled back. “Thank you!” He said, loudly, and the blond barista nodded before he turned to continue making the rest of the drinks. As Liam made his way back to Louis, his drink cradled in his hands, he kept glancing back, his eyes set on the blond barista. Louis raised one of his eyebrows at Liam, smirking.

“What?” Liam asked, his eyes still on the barista.

“Maybe you could ask _your_ new friend to get pelted with snowballs. Maybe if you showed that much enthusiasm when playing you wouldn’t get so many sprained ankles.”

“I only got one sprained ankle and that was due to you, Louis.” Liam replied, but otherwise seemed unperturbed by Louis’ taunts.

“I still deny that accusation, Liam, as it is a baseless one with no evidence to back it up.”

“I have witnesses.” Liam said.

“And I have very embarrassing photos of said witnesses which will prove that your witnesses are not witnesses at all.”

Liam snorted. “Blackmail won’t change the blame.”

Louis shrugged. “Prove I did it.”

“Prove you didn’t.”

Louis opened his mouth, but closed it, at a loss. A smile spread across his face. “Touche, Payne.”

“Tea, no sugar, Louis!”

Louis walked forward and took his drink, thanking the blond barista, whose name tag actually read ‘Niall’ and was really rather cute, although, Louis could think of one person who was cuter. As he walked away, Louis brought the cup to his lips, tipping it back and letting the bitter liquid warm his throat. As he pulled it away though, the writing on the side of the cup caught his eye. A cute little Christmas tree was drawn under his scribbled name, along with an adorable little happy face. Louis tried not to smile too hard as he brought the cup back to his lips.

 

Louis learned Harry’s coffee order the next day, when he had the sudden craving for the type of tea only a small, cute coffee shop could supply him.

‘Complicated’, as Harry had put it, was an understatement.

“But you work at a coffee shop!” Louis said, throwing his hands in the air.

“Yeah, and?” Harry ask, shrugging and smirking in a way that made Louis want to douse himself in gasoline.

“And,” Louis said, drawing it out. “You’d think that someone who knows how annoyingly complicated people can be with their coffee orders would have a simple order themselves, if only to make it easier for their fellow coffee shop workers.”

Harry laughed. “I can’t help what I like.”

“This isn’t about what you like, it’s about common courtesy!”

Harry raised one of his eyebrows. “Have you ever worked in a coffee shop?”

“Well, no-”

“Well then, why do you care how complicated my order is?” Harry asked, acting as though he weren't incredibly amused with the conversation. “You don’t have to make it.”

“I happen to be a very empathetic person, Harry,” Louis said, matter-of-factly. “ I can feel the pain of all of the people who have had to make a ‘Triple, Venti, Half Sweet, Non-Fat, Caramel Macchiato’ for you. Minimum wage is certainly not enough for that.”

Harry laughed again, loudly, and Louis couldn’t help but stare.

“It’s sweet you remembered it exactly, though.” Harry said.

“It’s hard to forget such a ridiculous order. Anyway, weren’t you the one who told me you liked people like me? Because I just ordered a simple tea?”

“I never said that was why I liked you.”

“What-”

“I’ll be right with you, sir!” Harry said loudly, cutting Louis off and rushing back over to the register where Louis’ new least favorite person stood, waiting to give Harry their order.

Louis, who was standing at the ‘Pick Up’ counter, his tea clutched in his hands, tried to process what Harry had just said.

He didn’t get very far in his thoughts when he heard a snort behind him.

“Liam,” Louis said, turning. “Is there something you’d like to say?”

Liam, who stood behind him with his tea in his hands and an annoyed look on his face, scowled. “Could you be any more obvious?”

“Aww,” Louis teased. “Is someone mad they didn’t get to see their cute, blond barista today? Because if you are, you really shouldn’t take it out on me. It’s not my fault it’s his day off.”

Liam rolled his eyes, mumbling, “I’m not mad.”

“I’m sorry what was that?”

“Look, are you ready to go? I really need to get back home to do some laundry and this Christmas music is starting to irritate me.”

“But you love Bublé!” Louis protested, indignantly.

“On occasion.” Liam said, pointedly. “Certain special occasions. And in increments, not continuously playing in a loop.”

Louis sighed, muttered about the lack of holiday spirit, and nodded toward the door before saying, “Okay,  Ebenezer, let’s go.”

Liam muttered, ‘thank you’ before he turned toward the door and strode out. Louis started walking toward the door too, but turned his head to get a last look at Harry. Harry, who was in the middle of making someone’s drink, was already looking at him.

“Have a good day!” He called out, in a mockingly pleasant voice.

“You too!” Louis sang back, giving him one last smile before he went out the door.

Outside the coffee shop, Louis looked down at his cup, trying to ignore the excited jump his stomach made. He wasn’t really expecting anything, yesterday was probably just something random Harry did, something he does to all first time comer’s cups. It probably wasn’t anything special really. It’s just-

Louis didn’t even try to control the large smile that spread across his face. Today, along with Louis’ name, Harry had drawn a snowflake. It was a shitty snowflake, Harry was definitely no Van Gogh, but it made Louis feel happy, nonetheless.

Humming in delight, Louis walked to the car and got in, ignoring Liam’s scowl and his mutterings about Louis being a ‘lovesick fool’. He wouldn’t be bothered anyway, Louis doesn’t listen to hypocrites.

 

“Should I order something different today?”

Louis looked up from his phone at Liam. Liam was standing in front of the mirror next to the door in their flat, fixing the collar of his shirt, his mouth formed into a thin line due to concentration. When Louis didn’t answer, Liam’s eyes’ flashed to Louis’, “Well?”

“That depends.” Louis finally replied.

“On what?”

“On whether or not you like asking me ridiculous questions,” Louis replied.

Liam frowned, “Why would it depend on that?”

“Oh it doesn’t, I just wanted to point out how ridiculous that question was.”

Liam snorted and rolled his eyes before returning his attention back to his clothes, which looked fine to Louis. He had already told Liam this, that his clothes looked perfectly fine and that yes, he looked very sexy, and yes, it was completely stupid to dress up just to go get some tea, but no, that sweater didn’t clash with his shoes.

“It’s just,” Liam said, now swiping at his hair, “what if he thinks I’m boring and consistent?”

“And he’d think that based on what?”

“My tea order,” Liam said, like Louis should know. “What if he thinks that since I order the same thing every time, I’m lame?”

“Well,” Louis said, looking thoughtful, “I suppose that if he did judge you on your tea order and decide to find it, and consequently, you, lacking, then…..well he’d be right, wouldn’t he?”

“You’re the worst.” Liam sighed, dropping his hands from his hair.

Louis laughed, coming up next to Liam and slinging an arm around his shoulder. “Come on Li, you know I’m kidding. You and I both know it’d be stupid of him to judge you based on your tea order, and if he did, you wouldn’t really want  someone so judgmental, would you?”

Liam nodded, still looking uncertain. Louis rolled his eyes, but said, “You look great, really, and Niall will think so too, I promise.”

Liam nodded again and Louis beamed. “Let’s go then,” Louis said, turning toward the door. He picked up his keys from the tray on the way out and locked the door behind Liam.

As they were leaving their flat, Liam said, a glint in his eye, “ ‘Consequently’, that was a big word for you, Lou. I’m surprised you have any room left in you for big words, what with those jeans squeezing you so tight.”

Louis laughed in surprise, bringing his arm up again to put it around Liam’s shoulders. “I suppose I deserved that one.”

 

When they got to the coffee shop five minutes later, the lights were off and there was a sign on the door that said, ‘CLOSED’. Louis, whose favorite part about the shop, besides a certain barista with an infectious smile, was the christmas music it usually played, felt especially disappointed when all he heard from inside was the hum of some sort of machine.

Liam groaned. “All that work,”  he muttered, pushing a hand through his hair.

“I wonder why it’s closed,” Louis said, forcing down his disappointment. “I hope Harry’s not sick.”

“Why would they close it down just because one barista is sick?” Liam asked.

“Probably because that one barista is the backbone of the entire shop,” said a voice from behind them, a voice that sent Louis’ stomach straight to his feet. It was not an entirely unpleasant sensation.

Liam and Louis turned to find Harry, dressed in all black and smiling like it was all he knew how to do.

“Harry!” Louis said, his voice rising an octave. Liam snorted.

“Louis,” Harry replied, smiling wider. Louis was suddenly reminded of a frog. A cute frog, though. Harry looked at Liam. “And Liam, right? The one Niall’s been talking about?”

Liam turned pink. “Niall has been talking about me?” Louis sniggered because Liam deserved it.

Harry nodded. “Of course,” He said. “Sorry about that,” He nodded toward the ‘CLOSED’ sign. “There was some sort of mold in there I guess, so we had to clear out while they checked it out.”

“Oh,” Louis said, taking a step away from the store.

Louis’ face must have been especially disgusted because Harry laughed. “Don’t worry it’s not bad, they already cleared it out, so we should be up and running again tomorrow.”

“Oh, good,” Louis said, and then, because he didn’t know what else to say, “What are you doing here then?”

“Left my laptop inside,” Harry replied, cheerily. “Had to come back and grab it before I go to class.”

“Right,” Louis said, and because Liam nudged him in the side, added, “Well, Liam and I should probably-”

“I’m not completely sure we’ll be open tomorrow,” Harry interrupted.

“Oh, uh, no?” Louis asked, confused.

Harry nodded, reaching into his pocket. “Mold can be pretty unpredictable, I’ve heard, so let me get your number. You know, just so you don’t come all the way down here again if we end up not being open.”

“Oh, well it’s not that far...” Louis trailed off, his face burning. When Harry stared at him, his phone in his hands and an expectant look in his eyes, Louis nervously pulled at his jacket and stammered out his phone number, because what else could he do when Harry was staring at him like that? When he was done, Harry typed something out before locking his phone and stuffing it back into his pocket.

Louis felt a buzzing in his own pocket. Trying not to smile to hard, Louis fished it out of his coat pocket and looked at the message from the unrecognized number:

_Hi, Lou, Harry here._

Louis looked up at Harry, who was smiling cheesily, then looked back down at his phone,and typed up a message of his own:

_Harry who? Sorry, not sure I know a Harry._

Louis hit send and only had to endure about three seconds of silence with Harry before his phone chimed.

Harry laughed when he read it. He quickly typed out a message.

_My bad, it’s Harry Styles, the guy from the coffee shop you love visiting? You know, your favorite coffee shop in the whole world?_

Louis grinned and shook his head.

_Oh, of course, Harry Styles. How could I forget?_

Someone cleared their throat behind them.

Louis looked up at Liam’s incredibly smug face, his environment returning to him in a flash. It had started to snow. When had it started to snow?

“Yeah?” He said, stupidly.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but we have to get to work soon. We should probably get going.”

“Right” Louis said, resisting the urge to shake his head. “Right.” He looked at Harry, who smiled.

“See you tomorrow, hopefully?” Harry asked.

Louis nodded. “Of course. See you tomorrow, Harry.”

As they turned to leave, Harry lifted up one hand in a wave, and Louis returned it, his face warming again.

“That’s was one of the most revolting things I’ve ever had to witness.” Liam said, but his tone was playful, if not a little jealous.

“Yeah, probably,” Louis replied, not really listening, smiling as he replayed Harry’s laugh over and over in his head.

“You’re still blushing.”

“Yeah, totally,” Louis said, taking out his phone to read over the messages, grinning.

“You are so far gone.”

“Mhmm,” Louis hummed, starting to type out a new message:

_Bet you can’t guess what I’m going to be ordering tomorrow._

 

Louis hadn’t realized he’d gotten into a routine until Liam pointed it out to him. It wasn’t that he was usually very unaware of what he was doing on any particular day, let alone every single day for three weeks straight, but as Liam liked to say these days, Louis was just in that deep.

It went like this: Louis woke up every morning to a text from Harry that went something along the lines of, ‘ _Really cold out today, lost my favorite sock, hope you order something warm today’,_ thus prompting Louis to smile disgustingly at his phone for at least three minutes before he typed out his reply, which usually went like, ‘ _I’m sure my warm and agreeable personality will keep me quite toasty, how do you only have one fav sock, and not a whole pair? As my order hardly ever changes, you can definitely count on that’_ , or something along those lines.

After some back and forth via text, Louis would be forced to get up by a very cheerful Liam banging on his door.  According to Liam every morning, they had exactly five minutes to get to their coffee shop before it got too busy to talk to their baristas. This was the same everyday, regardless of what time they got up. Louis, who had no objections to seeing Harry, got up with a sigh.

Louis never told Harry he was on his way; it seemed like he just knew, because when Louis arrived some ten minutes later, his drink was already sitting there on the counter, with an adorably horrible drawing on the side and waiting to be paid for.

Liam’s was the same, as Niall had inevitably noticed Liam coming in everyday and felt inclined to follow Harry’s lead. That was what Louis thought anyway. He hardly paid attention though, because while Liam talked to Niall, Louis had other things to do.

While Louis paid for his tea, he talked with Harry about anything that came to his mind, from Harry’s favorite missing sock to Louis’ huge problem with parking meters (paying for public parking was absolutely ludicrous and Louis wouldn’t hear of anything else), and then they parted ways when some random customer decided to rudely end their conversation by getting Harry to do his job. Some people were that inconsiderate, it seemed.

This went on for three weeks, and Louis had planned for it to keep going at least for a little while longer, until the day before Christmas Eve. And Louis’ birthday, which Louis thought was slightly more important. However, since they had decided not to celebrate until after Christmas, that fact was up for discussion at a later time.

“So, are you going to ask him out soon?” Liam blurted the evening of Christmas Eve Eve, slightly offhandedly.

In the corner, their Christmas tree twinkled brightly, the tinsel and sparkly ornaments creating an atmosphere of festivity that did not need to be dwindled by the coming conversation.  

“What?” Louis asked, swiveling around in his chair, surprised. “What do you mean?”

“Are you going to ask Harry out soon,” Liam repeated, raising an eyebrow. He stood in front of the mirror again, but rather than look into it and pick at his outfit, it seemed that he was going to pick at Louis. That seemed unfair.

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” Louis lied, swiveling back around to face his computer. He had pulled up the music video of some obscure band Harry had suggested he listen to. It was, of course, some weird indie band that sang like they had something stuck in their throats. It wasn’t Louis’ thing, but it was Harry’s, so the least Louis could do was take a listen. If only to tell Harry he tried it out.

“Well that’s an obvious lie,” Liam said, simply.

“Excuse me, Liam,” Louis said, swivelling around again, “what are you accusing me of here?”

“Lying,” Liam said, frowning. “I thought that was obvious.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “I’m not lying.”

“Yes you are.”

“Prove it.”

“Prove you’re not.”

Louis glared. “You can’t keep doing that, it weakens your argument and has less of an impact every time you say it.”

Liam shrugged. “I’ll stop using it when you admit that you are a dirty liar.”

“Why, does that turn you on?”

“Louis,” Liam snapped, obviously annoyed. It took him a moment to say the next words; he seemed to have been counting to ten in his head.  “Why won’t you admit you’ve thought about asking Harry out?”

Louis sighed, his fingers absentmindedly playing with a stray string on his sweater. “I don’t know, Liam.”

“You don’t know why you won’t admit you’ve thought about asking Harry out, or you don’t know why you haven’t done it yet?”

“The second one.”

Liam stared at Louis for a moment, his mouth a hard line and his forehead creased in thought. Then, he smiled.

“You’re asking him out tomorrow.” Liam said, as though there was no other choice.

Louis frowned. “No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Louis.

“Liam.”

Silence. They stared at eachother, all glares and frowns.

Finally, Louis: “Fine.”

 

The next morning was cold and bright, with a fresh blanket of snow covering the ground and everything in sight. The air had an especially fresh crisp to it, and Louis felt only slightly sick as he walked down the sidewalk, squinting as the sun’s shining rays reflected off the snow in a way that was only slightly blinding.

Next to Louis, Liam walked confidently, a proud smile on his face. If Louis were a smidge more conceited he might have thought Liam was smiling at the fact that he got Louis to agree to asking Harry out; but Louis was just the right amount of conceited, and thus knew that that was not the case.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Louis finally asked, frowning.

Liam looked at Louis, and smiled in a way that indicated he had been waiting for Louis to ask a question of that sort. He let Louis’ question hang in the air for a moment, before he finally answered.

“I asked Niall out.” He said, like it were that simple.

Louis abruptly stopped. “What?!”

“I know!” Liam said and stopped too, laughing gleefully. “I did it! And you know what he said?”

“I can only guess…” Louis trailed off, his mind in utter disbelief.

“He said yes!” Liam said, as if there were anything else he could have said.

“How-when-what?!” He sputtered, shaking his head. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

“Well, I like to keep my business to myself, you know.”

“Liar!” Louis burst out, pointing a finger at Liam. “You were holding this over me, just waiting for the most surprising moment, you scoundrel!”

“Scoundrel? Really?” Liam asked, but the sarcasm he might have attempted to put behind the words fell short as his happiness was just too much to contain. Liam settled for a grin.

When Louis finally got over his surprise, he decided that he felt happy for Liam, and told him so.

“You didn’t think I would do it?” Liam said, once Louis had offered the right amount of congratulations, and Liam had given him the proper amount of thanks.

“Honestly? No.” Louis said, unabashed.

“I just wanted to be the one to do it this time, you know? Take control and all that.” Liam said, a reminiscent smile spreading across his face.

Louis nodded, smiling with him. “Well, you’ve certainly never been the one to do that, so good on you.”

“Thanks,” Liam said, proudly. “So maybe, you should do the same?”

Louis rolled his eyes, good naturedly. “I thought I already agreed to this.”

“Really?” Liam raised his eyebrows. “Had you?”

“You heard me say, ‘fine’.”

“I did,” Liam conceded.

After a moment of silence, of the two of them shuffling through the snow covered ground, Liam said, “But-”

Louis groaned, “No buts! I already said I’d do it, so I’ll do it.”

“I was just going to say,” Liam said, calmly, “that you don’t actually have to, if you don’t want to. I don’t want you to do something you don’t want to do, especially if that something is asking someone out.”

Louis fell silent at that, at a loss for words.

The problem was, Louis _did_ want to ask Harry out. He’d been wanting to ask Harry out since the moment he heard the most adorable nasally sound of Harry’s laugh, since he saw that he could create a whole city in Harry’s dimple alone, since Harry looked at him with those green eyes that held more kindness in them than Louis had ever seen in any person ever, since Louis had even heard him say one word. The fact that Louis wanted Harry was unequivocally apparent in Louis’ mind.

The only thing stopping Louis from taking that next step was Harry himself.

Harry was simultaneously the most and least intimidating person in the world. With long, lanky limbs and a smile that just screamed, ‘cheesy’, Harry hardly seemed the type to make anyone afraid of putting themselves out there for him. And yet. And yet, Harry was wholly and completely himself, in everything he did. From the way he looked at you as though you were the world and he were the sun and his only duty in life was to sustain you, from the the way he smiled at you like you were his favorite indulgence, and from the way his voice settled over you in the same way the morning mist settles over a town just beginning to wake up, it was hard to be anything but completely disoriented when talking to him- disoriented yet completely clear at the same time. It was a feeling Louis was still getting used to, and one he did not want to lose. He knew that much.

So why risk it? Why put himself out there if there was even a slight possibility that that would only result in the loss of what might be the best thing in his life so far? Where would that leave him?

Louis didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to think about how this boy had, in only a few short weeks, taken over his mind completely- and they hadn’t even kissed yet. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if he lost him, didn’t want to think about how he would feel if he knew he were the reason for it.

But he also didn’t want to think about a life in which he missed out. He didn’t want to entertain the possibility of an existence where he chickened out, or left the question unanswered, or even worse- unasked.

So, that was it then.

As they finally walked up to the coffee shop, as Louis finally heard the sounds of muffled Bublé inside, as Louis felt that warm feeling spread throughout his chest when he caught sight of the twinkling lights in the shop, Louis decided then.

There were to be no questions unasked. He was going to go right in there, march up to the counter, and ask Harry out on a date. It was now or never.

Apparently, as they stepped through the door, it wasn’t exactly now. Because now, there was a very long line to the front of the counter, and a line was already starting to form behind Liam and Louis.

Louis took a deep, calming breath and tried not to scream. His resolve had only worked then, right there, in the moment, and Louis wasn’t sure it was going to last.

“We’ll get there,” Liam said reassuringly, patting Louis’ back. Louis bit his tongue, knowing Liam was only trying to help, but also wanting to smack the living daylights out of him.

The line moved faster than Louis thought it would, but still not fast enough to his liking. As he waited, he fidgeted so much he thought Liam might hit him. It was a relief to the both of them when they finally reached the counter.

“Hi,” Harry said, a little breathlessly, before continuing on, in a rush,“Happy Birthday, Lou. Sorry, didn’t have time to make your drink yet, been busy today, just the teas then?”

He had already grabbed the cups, and was writing on them, when Louis said, “Yeah, thank you, sounds great. Listen, Harry, I was wondering if you’d like to-”

“Hurry up! Some of us have places to be!” Some snapped behind Louis, causing him to turn, surprised.

“Excuse you?” Louis asked, wondering if he had actually just heard someone snap at Harry, or if someone were that out of their minds.

“I said, hurry up!” It was woman, apparently, a disgruntled looking woman, who, by the looks of it, looked high strung enough without the extra caffeine she was probably about to get.

Louis opened his mouth to tell her this, but stopped when he heard Harry’s obviously pleasant voice say, “I’m sorry for the delay, ma’am. I’ll be right with you!”

Louis turned back to Harry, his mouth opening, but Harry cut him off. “Don’t worry about paying, Merry Christmas!”

And before Louis knew it, he was being shuffled along to the pick up counter, utterly at a loss for words.

That was that, apparently.

As Louis stood at the counter, his mind turning over what just happened, he felt something dark and heavy settle at the pit of his stomach.

Of course, he could just ask Harry tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day, but really, when would Louis ever regain that much confidence in himself to try that again? Louis wasn’t confident in his confidence, not in the slightest.

“Louis, Liam!” Niall called out, and Louis looked up, catching the shy smile Niall gave Liam, the dark pit in his stomach promptly turning into a black hole. Liam smiled back and took the cups, his fingers brushing Niall’s in an innocently intimate way that made Louis want to look away. Louis just barely caught Liam say the words, ‘tomorrow night’, before he saw the both of them blush, and then he really had to look away.

“Thanks,” Louis said when Liam appeared by his side, Louis’ drink in his outstretched hand. He took it, the warm tea inside doing little to warm to disappointment in his whole body, and started to make his way toward the exit, Liam at his heels.

When they had finally escaped the comfort and warmth of the coffee shop, Louis stood on the sidewalk, his thumb rubbing slow circles on the side of his cup. Liam didn’t say anything for a moment.

“Home, then?” He asked, looking at Louis with a mixture of sympathy and understanding. It was not a look Louis found unwelcome.

Louis nodded, “Sure.”

As Liam turned, Louis brought the cup to his lips for the first time, and, out of habit, looked at the side of the cup, where his picture usually was.

Rather than a picture, there were five words, five words to make Louis’ heart stop:

_So, dinner then, tmrw nite?_

Louis, shocked, looked up and into the coffee shop, to where Harry stood at the counter. Harry, seeming to sense his gaze, turned his head and met Louis’ eyes.

Harry winked.

Louis smiled.

Tomorrow night it was, then.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it as much as I enjoyed writing it, leave kudos or a comment if you did! Have a good day! :)


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